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[DaffyVina]

19:44
'We didn't see the sun for so long'

Natalia Usmanova buries her face in her hands
Copyright: Reuters
Image caption: Natalia Usmanova, pictured, told Reuters: "You just can't imagine" life in Azovstal

The first accounts of life in the labyrinth of tunnels beneath the Avozstal steelworks are starting to emerge.

We reported earlier how Reuters news agency had spotted civilians stepping off the bus from Mariupol in the village of Bezimenne, in Russia-held parts of east Ukraine.

One of them was 37-year-old Natalia Usmanova, who told the news agency what it was like when powerful bombs hit while she hid underground

"I feared that the bunker would not withstand it - I had terrible fear," she said. "When the bunker started to shake, I was hysterical, my husband can vouch for that: I was so worried the bunker would cave in."

"We didn't see the sun for so long," she added.

"You just can't imagine what we have been through - the terror."

"I lived there, worked there all my life, but what we saw there was just terrible."

20:12
No intent to surrender, Mariupol commander says
Captain Palamar wears a green hat in this photo still
Copyright: Azov / Reuters
Image caption: Captain Palamar seen in a video statement from 24 April

Despite the news that 100 civilians are on their way from Mariupol's war-battered Azovstal steel plant to Ukrainian-held territory, one of the commanders there says many injured remain.

"There are still wounded at the plant as well. They have not been evacuated yet, but we hope that they are going to be taken away from here. Their condition is serious, they need proper medical treatment, proper nutrition to recover," Captain Svyatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov regiment, told the BBC.

Food and water issues remained, he said, but those remaining are "trying to stretch out what we have for as long as possible".

Aside from the hope for the remaining civilians to be evacuated, he said, "we are willing to fight back and do not intend to surrender".

He said he hoped Ukrainian officials and the leaders of other countries would "do everything possible to evacuate our garrison from Mariupol".

20:38
Fire at a Russian defence ministry site - Belgorod governor

A fire broke out at a Russian defence ministry site close to the Ukrainian border, according to the governor of the Belgorod region.

One person sustained minor injuries, Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.

The governor of another Russian region near the Ukrainian border, Kursk, said part of a freight railway bridge had collapsed, with no casualties.

"It was sabotage, a criminal case has been opened. The authorities in charge of the investigation will resolve the issue," said governor Roman Starovoyt on Telegram, without naming Ukrainian forces.

Russia has frequently accused Ukraine of attacks on its territory near to the border.

20:55
'Do not lose vigilance' - Kharkiv regional head
Sophie Williams
Reporting from Lviv

A destroyed building
Copyright: Kharkiv regional state administration

The head of Kharkiv's Regional State Administration has warned people to remain vigilant, despite the fact that Russian troops have “reduced the intensity of shelling”.

Oleh Synyehubov shared images from the town of Dergachi, some 12km (seven miles) north west of Kharkiv, on Telegram.

He said the photos showed the “consequences of prolonged shelling” on the town.

Synyehubov also warned Kharkiv residents in the northern and eastern districts of the city to remain inside on Sunday due to shelling.

A building in Dergachi that has been shelled
Copyright: Kharkiv regional state administration

A damaged car in Dergachi
Kharkiv regional state administration

21:18
Denmark and Sweden accuse Russia of violating air space

Denmark and Sweden have said a Russian spyplane has violated both countries' air space.

Both are summoning Russian ambassadors over the incident.

The Danish Defence Command told AFP the aircraft was a reconnaissance plane that was in Danish air space for "a very brief moment" and that Danish F-16 aircrafts "immediately intervened". It added that such incidents are rare.

Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said the breach was "totally unacceptable and particularly worrying in the current situation".

While Denmark is a member of Nato, Sweden is debating whether it should join the alliance.

However, the Swedish defence minister told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper there was no proof that the incident was linked to these discussions.

[DaffyVina]

5:51
More evacuation efforts needed - Ukraine official

Hundreds still remain in bunkers in the besieged Azovstal steelworks, Denys Shleha of Ukraine's National Guard said on Sunday.
He added that at least two more evacuation efforts would be needed to get everyone out.
The site has seen one of the most destructive sieges in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and local officials say many Ukrainian troops and civilians are holed-up in the plant.

Civilians are helped over rubble at the steelworks plant, which has been under heavy Russian bombardment
Copyright: Reuters


6:28
Explosions in Belgorod, no casualties - governor

Two strong explosions took place in the early hours of Monday in Belgorod, a Russian city just north of Ukraine, said its governor.

"According to the operational headquarters, there is no damage or destruction. There were no casualties," governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.

We'll bring you more information on this as we get it.


6:50
UK offers new assessment of Russian losses

The UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has offered a new sense of the scale of Russian losses during the invasion of Ukraine.

It is likely that more than a quarter of the Russian battalion tactical groups sent to the conflict have been rendered "combat ineffective", the MoD estimated in its daily update, though it did not elaborate more on this.

More than 120 such units had been committed to the Ukraine invasion, the MoD said in a tweet. This was around two-thirds of Russia's entire ground combat strength.

Most battalion tactical groups are thought to have 700-800 personnel, according to British security think tank RUSI.

Some of Russia's most elite units - including the VDV Airborne Forces - have suffered the "highest levels of attrition", the MoD added.

"It will probably take Russia years to reconstitute these forces," its tweet said.


7:16
The latest updates from Ukraine

If you're just joining us or need a quick catch up, here are the latest developments from Ukraine:

Around 100 civilians have been evacuated from the Azovstal steelworks complex in the southern city of Mariupol
Russia said dozens have arrived in a village it controls
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said a large group is on its way to Ukraine-controlled Zaporizhzhia
Evacuees from the steel plant have described what they faced under siege - one woman said she has not seen sunlight for two months
A Ukrainian Guard official said that despite evacuation efforts, hundreds still remain in bunkers in the steel plant. He added that at least two more efforts would be needed to get everyone out
Meanwhile, two strong explosions took place in the early hours of Monday in Belgorod city, which borders Ukraine to the north. No casualties were reported
Meanwhile, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has led a Congressional delegation to Kyiv to meet President Zelensky
She promises American support "until the fight is done" and says Congress will move quickly to approve $33bn in aid for Ukraine

With that, its Yvette Tan in Singapore and Andrew Clarence in Delhi signing out. We're handing over to our colleagues Jeremy Gahagan and James FitzGerald in London.

Evacuees at Russia's Bezimenne camp just east of Mariupol, 1 May 2022
Copyright: Reuters
Caption: Evacuees arrive at Russia's Bezimenne camp just east of Mariupol


Shroud of secrecy over Mariupol evacuations that offer signs of hope
Joe Inwood
Reporting from Lviv

A woman is assisted during evacuations from the Azovstal steel plant
Copyright: Reuters

Around 100 Ukrainian civilians, rescued from a huge industrial complex in the port of Mariupol, are expected to arrive this morning in the city of Zaporizhzhia, which is controlled by Ukraine.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he hopes evacuations from Mariupol will continue today, if conditions allow. The Ukrainian government says around 1,000 civilians remain trapped in the steel plant, as well as hundreds of wounded soldiers.

This was the moment the world had been talking about for weeks. Time and again humanitarian corridors for the civilians stuck under the Azovstal steelworks had been proposed. Time and again they had failed.

But, under a shroud of secrecy, yesterday around 100 did manage to make it out. They emerged from the sprawling tunnels, many of them needing help over the wasteland that greeted them. Once free, they were loaded onto buses and taken to a Russian-controlled village - a source of some concern.

But, speaking in his nightly address, President Zelensky said they would eventually be taken to the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.

This is a significant diplomatic achievement, for both the Red Cross and the United Nations, and will offer some hope that negotiations can bear fruit in this most brutal of wars.

The situation is still desperate for around 1,000 civilians who remain trapped inside the plant, and the Ukrainian soldiers there. President Zelensky said further evacuations would be carried out if conditions allowed.


8:01
Further fears of conflict spreading to Moldova

Wrecked radio masts in Grigoriopol, Transnistria
Copyright: Reuters/Transnistria Interior Ministry
Image caption: Recent blasts in the breakaway Transnistria region are unexplained

Ukraine's military has reportedly suggested that Russia could attack Moldova in the near future.

According to Ukrainian intelligence sources cited by the UK's Times newspaper, an invasion of Moldova would help Russia threaten the Ukrainian city of Odesa from the west.

They reportedly said Odesa would be an easier target if Moscow controlled Moldova - and the Moldovan army only consisted of a few thousand troops.

Tension has already been rising in the pro-Russian Moldovan breakaway region of Transnistria, where there's been a series of unexplained explosions.


8:17
Two more locations for evacuees - Mariupol administration

Two additional locations will house refugees coming from the besieged city of Mariupol, the Mariupol City Council has said.

In a statement on Telegram, the administration said they would go to two villages - on Mangush which is west of Mariupol, and in a village near Berdyansk, in south-east Ukraine.

"With the support of the United Nations and the Red Cross, two additional locations have been agreed today to put people in an evacuation convoy leaving Mariupol," it said.


8:33
Azovstal evacuees expected in Zaporizhzhia

Members of the Azov regiment walk out of the Azovstal metal works with civilians
Copyright: David Arakhamia/Azov Regiment
Image caption: Civilians were pictured leaving the vast metal works yesterday

As we've been reporting, dozens of civilians are expected to arrive in Zaporizhzhia today after some evacuations were finally managed from a huge industrial complex in Mariupol.

Ukraine's President Zelensky said in a video address yesterday that more than 100 women and children had managed to leave the Azovstal metalworks on Sunday.

It had taken weeks of talks and attempts to get people out of there, he said. "For the first time there were two days of real ceasefire in this territory," Zelensky added.

He was hopeful that further evacuations could be made on Monday - if conditions allow.

Organising these exit corridors was "very complex," he acknowledged.


8:53
Zelensky warns of global food crisis

Ukraine's President Zelensky has warned that the conflict could trigger a food crisis affecting countries around the world.

Speaking to Australian news programme 60 Minutes, Zelensky said his country could lose tens of millions of tonnes of grain because Russia had blockaded its ports on the Black Sea.

Ukraine is one of the world's top exporters of grain and other food products.

"Russia wants to completely block our country's economy," Zelensky said.


9:17
Mariupol evacuees describe 'wiped out' city

A woman stands near a heavily damaged building in Mariupol
Copyright: Reuters

Whole streets are said to have been destroyed in the cityImage caption: Whole streets are said to have been destroyed in the city

Around 100 civilians are expected to reach the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia today - after evacuations from a besieged steel plant in the southern city of Mariupol.

The BBC has been speaking to a pair of mothers who last week made that same journey from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia.

One of them, Natalia, said she feared for her life and the lives of her children every day while in Mariupol - moving between three different bomb shelters to escape shelling.

"Only silly people could believe in Russian fairy tales that a future under occupation will be good," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Nadia called it "incomprehensible" that a whole city had been "wiped out", claiming there were whole streets that no longer existed.

The two women went on to describe a difficult, hazardous and emotional journey out of Mariupol. "The Russians were sarcastically asking whether we really wanted to go to Ukraine," Nadia said.

Of their arrival in Zaporizhzhia, Natalia said: "I had tears of joy. I felt tranquillity, and felt relieved."


9:36
Ukraine claims drone hit on two Russian ships
Image shows drone shot of Russian boat
Copyright: Ukraine Ministry of Defence / Twitter
Image caption: One of the ships moments before being struck in the unverified drone footage released by the Ukrainian military

A Ukrainian drone has destroyed two Russian patrol ships in the Black Sea, Ukraine's military chief says.

"Two Russian Raptor-class boats were destroyed at dawn today near Zmiinyi (Snake) Island," Chief of General Staff Valeriy Zaluzhniy says.

Unverified drone footage released by the Ukrainian military appears to show two ships being targeted by missiles from the air while on patrol in the Black Sea.

Moscow is yet to respond to the claim.


10:07
Russia says it downed Ukrainian fighter jet

A Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet has been destroyed during an air battle in the eastern Donetsk region, the Russian military claims.

At a press briefing, a military spokesperson said Russian air defences also destroyed two Tochka-U missiles in Luhansk, as well as a Smerch missile in Donetsk.

Ten Ukrainian drones have also been destroyed, Igor Konashenkov added.

He said Russian forces had also hit 38 military targets in Ukraine, including weapons depots and command posts.

Both sides regularly claim detailed losses they have inflicted on the other, which the BBC can't independently verify.


10:24
Russia resumes shelling of Azovstal, plant defender says

Russia is said to have resumed its assault on the Azovstal metal works in Mariupol following the successful evacuation of Ukrainian civilians from the vast industrial complex.

One of the plant's defenders, Ukrainian national guard commander Denys Shlega, says the shelling continued after the evacuation buses left.

“A ceasefire has been declared for the past two days during a civilian evacuation operation,” Shlega said on national television on Sunday night. “Two days passed quietly.

“As soon as the last civilian left the plant, shelling from all kinds of weapons began.”

Shlega estimates several hundred civilians were left inside, along with about 500 wounded soldiers.

Dozens of civilians are expected to arrive in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia today after managing to escape Azovstal.


10:43
A delicate evacuation operation as hundreds more in steel plant wait for rescue
Hugo Bachega
Reporting from Dnipro

Civilians being evacuated on a bus
Copyright: David Arakhamia/Azov Regiment
Image caption: Civilians being evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant yesterday

Negotiations for the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol, and the task of carrying it out, has proved to be complex and delicate. A convoy of about 100 people who were sheltering at the Azovstal steel plant is expected to arrive in Zaporizhzhia in the next few hours.

Many had been sheltering there for weeks, some since the first days of Russia’s invasion, hiding in underground shelters and bunkers with very little food and water.

The site is also the last pocket of refuge for Ukrainian soldiers. Denys Shlega, a Ukraine National Guard commander, said Russian forces resumed artillery bombardment of the plant almost immediately after the civilians left the site on Sunday.

Few details of the evacuation process have been disclosed, after previous attempts failed to guarantee a safe passage for those hoping to flee a city completely devastated by weeks of intense fighting.

It is not yet clear when the several hundred civilians who remain at the steel plant will be rescued. And, to the despair of families of the fighters holed up there, there is no indication that any plan will include them too.

[DaffyVina]

12:00
Israel fury at Lavrov's Hitler 'part Jewish' claim

There's been a furious reaction in Israel after Russia's foreign minister said Nazi leader Adolf Hitler "had Jewish blood".

Sergei Lavrov made the claim when trying to justify Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Asked in an Italian TV interview how Russia could portray Ukraine as a Nazi country when Ukraine's own president is Jewish, Lavrov said that was irrelevant.

"The fact does not negate the Nazi elements in Ukraine. I believe that Hitler also had Jewish blood," he said.

His remarks play up an unproven historical claim that Hitler's paternal grandfather might have been Jewish. Under Hitler, Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews in the Holocaust.

Israel's foreign minister called Lavrov's statement "unforgiveable and outrageous... as well as a terrible historical error", and he has demanded an apology.

[DaffyVina]

12:26
Evacuation from Mariupol delayed

We've been reporting that around 100 people were evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant in the port city of Mariupol, and are expected to arrive in Zaporizhzhia, more than 200km away, today.

Outside of the steel plant, evacuations were planned to take place across Mariupol this morning - but civilians are still waiting for the buses, which were meant to arrive at the pick up point at 07:00 local time (05:00 BST).

The city council has asked civilians to remain at the pick-up point as they are hoping the evacuation will still take place.

An aide to the mayor of Mariupol earlier stated the buses left Mariupol in the morning, but later corrected his comment with a message confirming a delay in the planned evacuation.


Analysis
Posted at 12:43
EU states agonising over Russian oil and gas
Jessica Parker
BBC Brussels Correspondent

The EU has been agonising over energy sanctions for weeks.

Member states have already agreed to phase out Russian coal by summer but oil is a tougher ask.

While Poland and the Baltic states have been agitating for action, Germany’s been accused of holding progress up. Now, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government is showing an increased willingness to move ahead.

Hungary, in particular, is seen as a potential road-block. It’s heavily reliant on Russian supplies, while the government of the recently re-elected Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, has voiced clear opposition to sanctions.

Often at odds with Brussels, Budapest’s words will be closely watched this week. And diplomats concede discussions, about a proposed ban, will be difficult.

If there is a compromise, more hard-line ban-favouring member states may find it hard to swallow. But the pressure on senior EU officials to find a way forward is acute.

The bloc knows it can’t rely on Russia for supplies, as proved by Gazprom’s decision to cut off Poland and Bulgaria from gas. And there’s a moral dilemma too.

Nearly a month ago, the bloc’s foreign policy chief conceded the EU had paid more than €35bn to Russia for energy imports since President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Some in Brussels plainly refer to it as “blood money”.

13:23
Aid workers and medics standing by for Mariupol refugees
Laura Bicker
Reporting from Zaporizhzhia

A convoy of more than a hundred people freed from the besieged steel plant in Mariupol are making the journey north-west to safety. Aid workers and medics are standing by.

It’s unclear how long it will take them to get to Zaporizhzhia (more than 200km away). So far progress seems to have been slow.

Talks are still under way to free hundreds more people who have been sheltering in darkness, in maze-like tunnels under the vast Azovstal steel works.

An old man looks out of the window of a vehicle on its way to Zaporizhzhia
Image caption: Some civilians are being evacuated from Mariupol after many weeks trapped in the city

Russia has bombarded the port city for more than 60 days. The basement of the steel plant has become the last stronghold for several thousand Ukrainian fighters.

A few civilians with their own cars are making use of the humanitarian corridor brokered by the United Nations and the Red Cross to get to the refugee centre.

Most of the vehicles are battered - one even had its windscreen smashed. Others are using plastic film and sticky tape to hold parts of the car together.

One, Daniil, had to scramble through the city looking for spare parts for his car after it was hit by shrapnel from a shell which landed just five metres away.

Husky dog Sly
Image caption: Peeking out the plastic film window from the passenger seat was his husky dog, Sly.


After handing over his papers to officials, Daniil jumped out the car and threw his hands in the air. His fingers made the V for victory sign.

“It’s been difficult, tough, frightening. I lived on a tugboat in the port in Mariupol. We couldn’t even raise our heads. It was so scary to be there,” he said.

I asked him what he will do now. “I am going to leave,” he said.

Daniil
Image caption: “I am going to get as far from everything as possible,” says Daniil.

The wait continues to see how many more civilians from his city will make it out alive.

Mariupol officials said Russia continued to shell the steel plant site overnight. It’s thought that several hundred people, including about 20 children, are still stuck in the basement of the plant.

One unit commander told Ukrainian television there were also around 500 wounded servicemen at the site.


13:53
'I can't believe it. Two months of darkness'

As we've been reporting, about 100 people have been evacuated from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the southern city of Mariupol.

Natalia Usmanova, who spent weeks in a bomb shelter at the plant, speaks of the horrors her family went through.
"I was terrified. It seemed to me that the factory is the safest place," she recalls.
She says at first there were around 50 people in the bomb shelter and about 40 in the neighbouring one.

Quote Message: The shelling was so strong. It kept hitting near us." from Natalia Usmanova Mariupol survivor

Natalia Usmanova
Copyright: Reuters

Natalia says there wasn't enough oxygen in the bomb shelter and people had to climb the steps towards the exit to be able to find a place to breathe properly.
"I was afraid to even walk out and breathe some fresh air," she remembers.

She says people came to the bomb shelter by their own free will "to save ourselves".
But as they heard the shelling getting closer, people got more scared and tried to leave the shelter.

Quote Message: When the shells started landing there, I thought my heart would stop."

Natalia says about 11 people got out of the shelter but were stopped at the exit by people who told them they couldn't leave because Russian soldiers would shoot them.

"Just imagine... at their own risk, with their little children, under shelling they went to the exit point and there they were told - 'no, we won't let you out, we can't risk your lives like that'."

Natalia remembers her relief when she reached the evacuation bus with her husband.

She said to him: "Vasya, we won't have to go to the toilet with a flashlight and we won't need to use a bag."

[DaffyVina]

14:52
Another day under Russian rule in Kherson
Sophie Williams
Reporting from Lviv

It's another day under Russian occupation for the residents of Kherson. The southern city was taken by the Russians at the start of the war and remains the only regional capital to be captured by them.

For many, getting access to the internet is becoming increasingly difficult with only one supplier said to be operating.

One resident, who did not want to give his name, said ill people were running out of medicine and food shops had shut.

“People are exchanging medicine with each other and are arranging ways of transporting medicine to villages,” he said. Many shops are empty and instead food is being sold from cars and trucks on the street.

“People stand there with their cars and the prices are higher but it’s ok."

There are concerns the Ukrainian banking system will be shut off in the city and people have been trying to make withdrawals just in case. The Russian rouble is meant to have started being used from Sunday but locals are resisting.

About 40% of the population are said to have left. But those who remain haven't given up hope, the resident I spoke to said.

“The majority of people believe Ukraine will have the victory," he said. "We see that Russia is losing. But we are tired of waiting and hiding under such pressure.”


15:56
Ukrainian negotiator blasts Russian Hitler comments

Mykhaylo Podolyak speaks to reporters
Copyright: Getty Images
Image caption: Mykhaylo Podolyak (C) is part of the Ukrainian negotiating team

Russia has been branded "the successor to Nazi ideology" by a member of the Ukrainian team who's been at peace talks between the two countries.

Mykhaylo Podolyak was responding to controversial comments by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Lavrov had been quizzed by an interviewer about his claims to be "de-Nazifying" Ukraine, given that Ukraine's president is Jewish.

Lavrov said President Zelensky's ancestry did not matter. Referring to unproven historical claims, he suggested even Adolf Hitler "had Jewish blood."

In a tweet, Podolyak - an aide to President Zelensky - accused Moscow of trying to "rewrite history" in order to "justify the mass killings of Ukrainians".


16:28
Lavrov's remarks could put pressure on Israel
Jon Donnison
Reporting from Jerusalem

More now on the furore that has followed Russia's foreign minister claiming that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler "had Jewish blood".

Sergei Lavrov’s remarks are front page news here and have provoked widespread outrage.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett described the comments as “lies”.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid went further: “Unforgivable and outrageous,” he said.

Dani Dayan, the chairman of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem, said Mr Lavrov’s words were "absurd, delusional and dangerous" - adding the claim Hitler was of Jewish descent was completely unfounded.

Over recent months, Israel, which has a large Russian speaking population, has tried to act as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine.

But the government has faced criticism for not taking a tough enough line with President Putin and for not offering enough direct military support to Ukraine.

Lavrov’s remarks could increase pressure for that policy to change.


16:35
Mariupol civilian evacuation runs into delays
Laura Bicker
Reporting from Zaporizhzhia

A woman holds a child next to a bus as civilians from Mariupol travel in a convoy to Zaporizhzhia
Copyright: REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
Image caption: Evacuees from Mariupol travel in a convoy to Zaporizhzhia

Efforts to evacuate more civilians from the devastated Ukrainian port city of Mariupol have run into delays. It's not clear what's causing the hold up.

We know the convoy is on its way, but the buses have hundreds of miles to travel along a road which is - in part - rubble.

They also have to go through a number of Russian checkpoints.

The group of around 100 women and children have survived in tunnels under the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol – cut off from food and supplies.

Appeals to get them out were ignored. Until now.

Yesterday, for the first time in more than 60 days, they clambered out of their dark refuge.

Mariupol officials said Russia continued to shell the steel plant overnight. It’s thought several hundred people, including around 20 children, are still stuck in the basement.

Talks are still under way to get everyone out safely, but brokering another deal for a humanitarian corridor out of the besieged city may be difficult.


17:20
More than 3,000 Ukrainian civilians killed - UN

The death toll of civilians in Ukraine has exceeded 3,000 people as of Monday, according to the UN's human rights office (OHCHR).

Since the start of the Russian invasion on 24 February, the OHCHR has recorded 3,153 civilian deaths in Ukraine - but it estimates the real toll is likely to be "considerably higher".

Possible discrepancies in the figures recorded come from the difficulty in receiving information from certain areas of the country and reports that are still pending corroboration.

This includes the lack of verification of large numbers of civilian casualties from places like the besieged port city of Mariupol.

Mariupol has suffered relentless bombing since the start of the war, with the city council estimating about 80% to 90% of the city's buildings have been damaged or destroyed.

Satellites have also identified mass burial sites near Mariupol containing about 200 graves, which are likely used to bury civilian bodies.

Local authorities have estimated vast numbers of civilians have been killed in the bombardment of the city.

The UN believes most civilians across the country have been killed by explosive weapons with a wide impact area (such as missile and air strikes), but the report did not specify who was responsible for the casualties.


17:47
Missile strike hits port city of Odesa
Caroline Davies
Reporting from Moscow

Odesa has been hit in another missile strike this afternoon.

A loud explosion was heard in the city followed by a plume of smoke.

The press centre for the Security and Defense Forces of the South has said that Russian troops launched the strike on what they described as urban infrastructure.

They have said that one religious building was damaged; information about the wounded is being clarified.

It is the second hit in a few days; on Saturday the Ukrainian authorities said that the runway at Odesa’s airport had been hit in a missile strike.

18:00
'Deaths and injuries' after Odesa rocket strike

We've been hearing more about a reported rocket strike on the Black Sea port city of Odesa in southern Ukraine.

Deaths and injuries are being reported by local governor Maksym Marchenko on the Telegram messaging app.

The strike has also damaged a religious building, the southern military command have said on Ukraine's public broadcaster Suspilne.


18:59
School that survived two world wars burnt down - Luhansk chief

A large burning school covered with flames and smoke
Copyright: Telegram/luhanskaVTSA
Image caption: The Lysychansk Multidisciplinary Gymnasium caught fire in eastern Ukraine's Luhansk region

A school that was standing for over a century - the Lysychansk Multidisciplinary Gymnasium - has been completely destroyed after it caught fire yesterday following targeted shelling, the Luhansk regional head says on Telegram

The Gymnasium survived two world wars and the battle for the town in 2014, "but burnt down because of animals without values in 2022", graduate Yana Honcharenko has said.

Honcharenko also described the Gymnasium as "among the top 100 best schools in the country".

The school was built in the late 19th century and is part of the Belgian architectural heritage of Lysychansk, the regional head's Telegram says.

Russia has moved most of the focus of its war to eastern Ukraine, after pulling back its forces from near the capital Kyiv.

19:31
'Hundreds still trapped in Mariupol' - commander

Hundreds of people remain trapped in a steel plant in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, even as a group of evacuees left on Sunday.

As we've been reporting, efforts to evacuate more civilians have run into delays and it is not clear what is causing the hold-up.

But a commander at the plant, Denys Shlega, said hundreds of people - including small children - were still at the plant.

He also said Russian forces had resumed heavy shelling of the area.

As soon as the civilians who had been evacuated left, "shelling from all kinds of weapons began", he told Ukrainian television.

A first group of people was evacuated with the support of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross who organised an official convoy.


19:59
'We did not expect such an inhumane war' - steelworks boss
Ben Brown
BBC News

Enver Tskitishvili, the boss of the besieged Azovstal iron and steel works in Mariupol
Copyright: BBC
Image caption: Enver Tskitishvili said the Ukrainian government updated Azovstal’s bunker system in 2014

The boss of the besieged Azovstal iron and steelworks in Mariupol has been talking to the BBC.

Enver Tskitishvili, director general of the company, explained why it’s been such a fortress for the Ukrainian fighters who are now making a desperate last stand against Russian forces who’ve bombed and shelled it for weeks.

Originally built in 1930, the Soviet authorities equipped it with 36 bunkers, some of them able to withstand a direct nuclear strike. There was also a sprawling network of tunnels, eight metres underground.

After Russia’s incursions into Ukraine in 2014, the Ukrainian government updated Azovstal’s bunker system, and this year, it gave fighters in the city details and maps of the underground network, and supplied the plant with 40,000 packages of food - each one enough for one person for one day.

It helps explain how thousands of fighters and hundreds of civilians have been able to survive underground for weeks on end, only some of the women and children now being evacuated.

"When the war started we made an announcement in the city that all people, if they were injured during the bombing and shelling, could come to us," Tskitishvili said.

But he added: "We thought it was possible we'd be shelled, but we did not expect such a genocide and such an inhumane war."

The director general also explained that Azovstal is a natural fortress because it’s surrounded by water on three sides - a river on one, and the sea on two.

[DaffyVina]

Ukraine war: Children in Mariupol 'drank rainwater from puddles'
By Jayne Morgan
BBC Wales Investigates
Published 7 hours ago

Media caption: Nataliia Roberts is trying to help a childhood friend

Hearing how her best friend's children were drinking rainwater from puddles to survive the war in Ukraine is why Nataliia Roberts wants her in the UK.

Yuliia and her three daughters used to run out of their basement shelter in the besieged city of Mariupol after it'd rained as they were so thirsty.

It wasn't just the basics of water and food, there was no toilet, shower or electricity in their refuge from bombs.

Nataliia now wants her childhood friend with her in the sanctuary of Wales.

"We had a small bowl [of soup] for three kids once per day," explained Yuliia. "And one glass of water for three kids to clean themselves."

After her home was destroyed by Russian bombs, Yuliia and her daughters - aged 11, six and three - had to find sanctuary in a communal basement which offered some shelter but she barely had any food to feed the children.

"The kids were asking for food so much, that's why she tried to feed them at bed time, so they felt full before bed," said worried friend Nataliia, watching on from her home in north Wales.

Yuliia's children on a video call
Image source, Yuliia
Image caption, Two of Yuliia's children get some escapism as they watch a video on their mum's phone in their underground bunker

"When it started to rain first of all they were able to drink from the puddle and that water was so, so, tasty. Then they found some pans to fill with water."

Yuliia eventually had to leave her children hiding as she went to look for fresh water.

Yulia & daughter
Image source, Yuliia
Yuliia &baby
Image source, Yuliia
Image caption, Yuliia and her family were happily enjoying life just months ago

"There was a well three kilometres [two miles] away. I had to run there under gunfire, under bombs," Yuliia recalls in a video diary for the BBC Wales Investigates programme.

And when her middle daughter became unwell, there were no medicines.

Aerial View of Mariupol
Image caption, The port city of Mariupol has been encircled by Russian troops since the start of March

Yuliia's apartment in Mariupol was destroyed
Image source, Yuliia
Image caption,Yuliia had to take refuge in an underground bunker after their apartment in Mariupol was destroyed by Russian bombs

"I had money but I couldn't buy anything because there was nothing anywhere, everything was broken, everything was looted and destroyed," she said.

Yuliia and Nataliia, who moved from Ukraine to Wales to be with her husband Dewi five years ago, have been close friends since school and had always kept in touch - until war broke out in Ukraine in February.

Natalia Roberts on the phone
Image caption, Nataliia speaks to Yuliia as often as she can to support her friend 2,000 miles away

For days, sometimes weeks, it wasn't safe for Yuliia to text or call her friend 2,000 miles away.

Nataliia had to make do with Yuliia's intermittent video diary updates from her underground bunker with her girls while her husband fought the Russians on the front line.

Yuliia's children asleep under underground pipework in their bunker
Image source, Yuliia
Image caption, Yuliia and her three daughters hid out in their underground refuge for several weeks

The 32-year-old accountant has managed to get her mum and stepdad out of eastern Ukraine when the situation began to escalate and Liudmyla and Sasha now live with Nataliia, husband Dewi, four-year-old Julia and Jacob, one, in the safety of Caernarfon.

Now Nataliia can't just look on as her friend struggles and is doing everything she can to help Yuliia and her young family become Ukrainian refugees in Wales.

Yuliia & daughter
Image source, Yuliia
Image caption, Yuliia and her daughters are desperate to join their family friend Nataliia in north Wales

Yuliia and her girls are among 11 million Ukrainians forced to flee their homes before they eventually escaped Mariupol, under fire - weeks before the start of the United Nations-led evacuation from the strategically significant city.
line

The port city of Mariupol, which has been encircled since the start of March, is now mostly under the control of Russian forces - although several hundred Ukrainian troops remain in the Azovstal metal works factory in the south of the city.

Russian forces have blockaded the sprawling industrial complex and are continuing their aerial bombardment of it, but no attempt has been made yet to clear Ukrainian troops from a network of tunnels beneath the factory.

Russia has been accused of war crimes for its intense shelling of the city, with the local mayor saying at least 20,000 civilians have been killed. More than 100,000 people remain trapped in the city.

Four maps showing how Russian forces have besieged Mariupol

By train and then minibus, they headed for Poland, not knowing when they'd see her husband again, or whether they'd be able to join Nataliia and her family in Wales.

But it is the sights of war that are leaving their mark on Yulia.

Nataliia Roberts and her mum Liudmyla
Image caption, Nataliia Roberts and her mum Liudmyla share a cup of tea in Nataliia's home in Caernarfon

"She did see dead people in Mariupol, the ones who were killed by rockets who had no hands, no legs, whose bodies were destroyed," said Nataliia.

"I would love to have Yuliia here in Wales. I was dreaming that one day we will have a cup of tea in our dining room altogether and they can see our life here and have a more happy life. I just would love it."

About 27,000 Ukrainian refugees - out of the 86,000 approved visas - are in the UK and Wales has said it wants to be a "nation of sanctuary" for those fleeing the horrors of war in their home-land.

About 10,000 Welsh households had offered homes to Ukrainian refugees but by the end of last month, the Home Office had issued 2,300 visas for those wanting to come to Wales.

Map showing which neighbouring countries those who have fled Ukraine have travelled to

The Welsh government has sponsored nearly 700 visa applications so far, but couldn't tell BBC Wales Investigates how many refugees had arrived in Wales, insisting it has asked the UK government for the data but been told it's unavailable.

The Home Office said it is working "as fast as it can" to provide the information for the devolved governments, adding more than 86,000 visas have been granted under various schemes and is simplifying forms and boosting staff numbers to speed up applications.

[DaffyVina]

20:42 2 May
What we know about Odesa rocket strike

We've been reporting that a rocket strike hit the Black Sea port city of Odesa, in southern Ukraine, on Monday evening.

People died and some were wounded as a result, according to the head of the Odesa administration.

A residential building, which had five people in it at the time of the attack was damaged, and a 15-year-old boy died, Odessa city council said on Telegram. A second child was taken to hospital.

The blast damaged the building's windows and walls as well as the roof of the adjacent Orthodox Church, Ukrainian officials said.

We do not yet know how many people and buildings have been affected and which area of the city has been hit.

Ukrainian officials blamed Russia for the attack.

Odesa - Ukraine's largest and most lucrative sea port - has so far been largely spared fighting. But on Saturday, the runway at the airport was damaged in a Russian strike.

Odesa is seen as an important target, both strategic and symbolic.

21:00 2 May
US official briefs on Russia's war effort

A senior official at the US Department of Defence has just confirmed to reporters that a top Russian general visited the Donbas region of Ukraine last week.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the US official said that General Valery Gerasimov was there, but that the US could not confirm that he had been injured, as some reports suggest.

It is "certainly possible" that he was there to conduct a "manner of oversight" the official added.

The official went on to describe Russia's offensive in Ukraine's east as "very tepid," "minimal at best", and "anaemic".

The official said Russian airstrikes continue in Mariupol, and that Russian troops are increasingly relying on unsophisticated "dumb bombs" that have to be dropped from lower altitudes that more advanced weapons.

The official also said the US has transferred more than 70 of the 90 howitzer artillery guns promised to Ukraine, as well as tens of thousands of shells. In the past 24 hours, 14 US military flights have sent supplies to the region, the official added.

However, none of the helicopters that President Biden approved for Ukraine have yet to be sent.

21:17 2 May
Russia plans to annex two Ukrainian regions - US official

Russia is planning imminently to "annex" two eastern regions of Ukraine battered by its invasion, according to the US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, Michael Carpenter said: "According to the most recent reports, we believe that Russia will try to annex the Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic to Russia.

"The reports state that Russia plans to engineer referenda upon joining sometime in mid-May."

Earlier this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he was recognising the independence of the two breakaway regions.

The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic are in the east of Ukraine and could allow Russia to move troops into the country.

22:12 2 May
Fresh attempt to evacuate civilians from Mariupol

There are fresh attempts to set up a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol

An evacuation of civilians with the support of the UN and Red Cross has been agreed for Tuesday at 07:00 local time (05:00 BST), Mariupol City Council said on Telegram.

This time the evacuation plan is for the general population of the city.

The announcement comes as hundreds of people remain trapped in the Azovstal plant, despite some managing to leave on Sunday.

Officials tried to evacuate civilians in Mariupol several times over the past months.

But most attempts failed - with Russia breaking its promised temporary ceasefire window to allow civilians out of bombarded cities -by blocking and shelling escape routes.

Many Mariupol residents fled on foot or by car when efforts to organise mass evacuations by bus collapsed.

The city is almost fully under Russian control, with much of it destroyed in weeks of heavy Russian bombardment.

22:59 2 May
Russia reroutes internet traffic in Kherson - NetBlocks

The move appeared aimed at tightening Moscow's grip on Kherson regionImage caption: The move appeared aimed at tightening Moscow's grip on Kherson region

Russia has rerouted internet traffic in the Ukrainian region of Kherson through Russian communications infrastructure, according to the internet service disruption monitor NetBlocks.

The London-based organisation said it had tracked a near-total internet blackout across Kherson on Saturday.

It said this affected various Ukrainian providers.

But after connection was restored, various metrics showed traffic was going through Russia.

"Connectivity on the network has been routed via Russia’s internet instead of Ukrainian telecoms infrastructure and is hence likely now subject to Russian internet regulations, surveillance, and censorship," NetBlocks said on its website.

Russia claims it has taken full control of Kherson region.

23:31 2 May
Boy killed in Russian missile strike, says Zelensky

A 14-year-old boy was killed during Monday's missile strike in Odesa by the Russian military, President Voloydmyr Zelensky says in his nightly speech.

A 17-year-old girl suffered a shrapnel wound in the same strike, he added.

"What is it? For what? What did these children and the dormitory threaten the Russian state with?" Zelensky asks.

He also spoke of the destruction by shelling of a gymnasium in the Luhansk region that had withstood two world wars.

"As we see, this gymnasium turned out to be a terrible threat to modern Russia," says Zelensky sarcastically.

He also adds that Denmark has become the 29th country to reopen its embassy in Kyiv, and that the EU will pass a new sanctions package against Russia "in the near future".

He says the latest EU sanctions will "include clear steps to block Russia's energy revenues. So that the terrorist state is not given a billion euros a day for fuel."

"We continue to do everything to save our people from Mariupol," he says, after about 100 civilians were allowed to flee the city on Sunday.

He also notes that an evacuation from Mariupol is planned for Tuesday with the evacuees expected to travel by humanitarian corridor to the Ukrainian cities of Berdyansk, Tokmak and Vasylivka.

Zelensky added that Ukraine's armed forces have repelled several Russian advances in the south and east of the country, but adds that "everywhere the situation remains extremely difficult".

23:48 2 May
Zelensky says Lavrov 'blaming Jewish people for Nazi crimes'

In his nightly address, Zelensky also slammed Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for remarks that have caused uproar in Israel.

Lavrov claimed on Sunday that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler "had Jewish blood". The foreign minister was at the time trying to justify Russia's portrayal of Ukraine as "Nazi" despite the fact its president, Zelensky, is Jewish.

Zelensky hit back on Monday: "Yesterday, for example, Russia's foreign minister openly and without hesitation said that the biggest anti-Semites were allegedly among the Jews themselves.

"And that Hitler allegedly had Jewish blood. How could this be said on the eve of the anniversary of the victory over Nazism? These words mean that Russia's top diplomat is blaming the Jewish people for Nazi crimes. No words.

"Of course, there is a big scandal in Israel today as regards these words. However, no one hears objections or excuses from Moscow. There is silence. Hence, they agree with what their foreign minister said."

[DaffyVina]

6:44
Hope for more Mariupol steelworks evacuations

Russian troops have launched new attacks on the Azovstal steel works in Mariupol, after a group of about 100 civilians were evacuated.

Despite this, the UN and Red Cross hope to oversee more civilian evacuations early on Tuesday morning. Hundreds of non-combatants remain hold up underground at the sprawling factory site alongside Ukrainian fighters, forces there say.

"This includes dozens of children who are still in bunkers underneath the plant," National Guard commander Denys Shlega said on Monday.

Russian forces have been shelling the steel plant with "all kinds of weapons", he added.

A first group of evacuees from the plant were expected to arrive in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia on Monday - but the rescue efforts ran into delays.

The BBC's Laura Bicker, who is in Zaporizhzhia, reports that the buses carrying the evacuees had to make the 200km trip along a road which is now partly rubble.

7:13
Israel's fury at Lavrov's claim that Hitler was part Jewish

Israel has reacted with fury after Russia's foreign minister claimed that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler "had Jewish blood".

Sergei Lavrov made the comments to try to justify Russia's portrayal of Ukraine as "Nazi" despite the fact that its president is Jewish.

Israel's foreign ministry summoned Russia's ambassador for "clarification" and demanded an apology.

The comments have been condemned across the political spectrum in Israel and by newspapers in the country.

In an analysis piece, the Jerusalem Post

said it meant Israel could no longer be neutral on the war in Ukraine.

Jerusalem’s best-laid plans to "somehow stay above the war" have now been undone, it says.

Another Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, carries comments

from the American Jewish Committee saying: "We’ve repeatedly said denazification is needed - in Moscow, not Kyiv.

"Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, one of Putin’s enablers-in-chief, makes clear why. His statement is grotesque."

7:35
Russian military significantly weaker after invasion - UK MoD

The UK's Ministry of Defence has released its daily intelligence update on the war in Ukraine

The MoD says Russia's military is now "significantly weaker" as a result of invading Ukraine.

It says the recovery of Russia's military will be made more difficult by sanctions imposed on Moscow, and in the long term this will impede the country's ability to deploy a conventional military force.

It notes that Russia's defence budget roughly doubled between 2005 and 2018, with investment in several high-end air, land and sea capabilities.

But the modernisation of Russia's physical equipment has not enabled it to dominate the war in Ukraine, due to failures in strategic planning, the MoD adds.

8:04
More than 200 civilians still trapped in Mariupol steelworks - mayor

More than 200 civilians are still holed up in Mariupol's huge Azovstal steelworks, the city's mayor Vadym Boychenko has said, Reuters news agency reports.

A number of civilians were evacuated from the steelworks - the last hold-out of Ukrainian troops in the strategically significant city - on Sunday.

The UN and Red Cross have said they hope to evacuate more civilians today.

Boychenko said about 100,000 civilians were still in Mariupol, which has been under siege for weeks.

8:31
WATCH: Zelensky says Moscow has forgotten lessons of WW2
Video content
Video caption: Moscow has forgotten the lessons of WW2 - ZelenskyMoscow has forgotten the lessons of WW2 - Zelensky

In his nightly address on Monday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of forgetting the lessons of the Second World War after Russia's foreign minister claimed that Adolf Hitler "had Jewish blood".

Sergei Lavrov made the comments to try to justify Russia's portrayal of Ukraine as "Nazi," - despite the fact that its president is Jewish - provoking condemnation from Israel.

Watch Zelensky's video...
transcript:
Yesterday, for example, Russia's foreign minister openly and without hesitation said that the biggest anti-semites were allegedly among the Jews themselves. And that Hitler allegedly had Jewish blood.
How could this be said on the eve of the anniversary of the victory over Nazism?
These words mean that Russia's top diplomat is blaming the Jewish people for Nazi crimes.
No words.

After the Russian missile attack at Babyn Yar in Kyiv, after the Menorah damaged by shelling at the site of the mass executions in Drobytsky Yar near Kharkiv, after the deaths of ordinary people who survived the Nazi occupation and Nazi concentration camps from Russian shelling, such an anti-Semitic thrust by their minister means Russia has forgotten all the lessons of World War II.
Or maybe they never thought of these as lessons.

We continue to do everything to save our people from Mariupol. The evacuation operation continues. Tomorrow we also expect movement through humanitarian corridors from Berdyansk, Tokmak, Vasylivka.

We are working on new sanctions against Russia. We expect a new package from the European Union in the near future. This package should include clear steps to block Russian energy revenues. We truly believe in this. So that the terrorist state is not given a billion euros a day for fuel.

[DaffyVina]

In Ukrainian villages, a desperate wait for news of the missing

By Joel Gunter in Kyiv, Ukraine
Anna Pantyukhova contributed to this report. Photographs by Joel Gunter.
in Kyiv, Ukraine
Published 2 hours ago

Olena Kuksa's husband was taken by Russian soldiers. "My soul aches," she said. "Not just for my husband, for everyone."

Vira Kryvoshenko kneeled on the ground by her front door and pressed her hands together in a prayer: please do not take my son.

It was only blind bad luck that Valeriy had arrived at the same time as the "evil spirits", as she called them. He was in the town of Makhariv, delivering food and medicine to her and her neighbours - older people who could not, or would not, flee the Russians.

Vira looked up. The Russian soldiers were a few feet away, spray painting "V" symbols on her car, to avoid friendly fire when they drove it away. One of them - just a boy, Vira thought, my grandson's age - took out a walkie-talkie.

"Poplar, poplar, this is padfoot," he said. "A car is about to come, don't shoot."

Vira raised herself up on her cane and spoke her prayer aloud. "Please do not take my son." In fact, Valeriy Kuksa was her son-in-law, but she called him her son. The Russians were taking her son. The young one raised his gun halfway. "Go back inside grandma," he said. "He is just going to help us push the car out of the driveway."

But they pushed him into the driver's seat of her car and pointed a gun at him, Vira said. She willed Valeriy to look back at her, but he looked straight ahead and drove away from the house and out of her life.

Vira Kryvoshenko and her daughter Olena. Vira saw her son-in-law taken away by Russian soldiers.

Stop in any village in the region west of Kyiv, where the Russian army terrorised the civilian population for a month, and you will hear a story about someone who vanished. A brother who went to take petrol to a friend and never arrived. A father who left his house on an errand and didn't return. A son who drove away at gunpoint and didn't look back.

Before the invasion, Maria Sayenko saw her father Mykola all the time - he lived a few houses over in the village of Hurivshchyna and came nearly every day to see her new baby. Then one day early in the Russian occupation he disappeared. "He left home and never came back," Maria said. "And nobody saw him anywhere."

A neighbour said he thought Mykola had gone to the next village on an errand, but he couldn't remember for sure. His house was just as he might have left it to walk to the shops. Maria filed a police report via an automated service online and settled in to wait. All Maria knows is that her father Mykola Medvid, a 56-year-old part-time car mechanic, left his house on 18 or 19 of March and hasn't been to see her baby since.

"We went to the nearby villages and the ones further away," Maria said. "He wasn't at a friend's house, at a checkpoint. Not dead, not alive. It's like he disappeared into thin air."

Maria Sayenko in her garden in Hurivshchyna. "It's like he disappeared into thin air," she said.

A few miles down the highway, in the village of Shpytky, Yulia Zhylko sat in her car in her driveway staring at a family photograph of her brother Yakiv on her phone. They were as close as siblings got, she said, and just a year and two weeks apart in age - 36 and 37 now and still living together with their parents.

On 11 March, Yakiv's friend in the village called to say he needed petrol. "My brother is so kind. He said, 'I'm going to take him fuel and I'll be right back'," Yulia said. Not everyone in Yulia's situation spoke about their loved one in the present tense, but she never wavered. And yet, Ukrainian soldiers had found Yakiv's car, on the shoulder of the highway, riddled with bullet holes. By the time Yulia was able to go to the car, after the Russians were gone, it had been burned through. But there were no signs of a body.

"We have called everywhere, filed every report," Yulia said. "They took all the information - shoe size, eye colour, blood type, scars, everything."

Yakiv had no tattoos, something their mother had taken pride in, but was therefore classed as "no distinctive marks on skin". Yulia filed the police report and joined the long list of people waiting for news.

Yulia Zhylko's brother disappeared. "We have called everywhere, filed every report," she said.

In Makhariv, Valeriy Kuksa's family was waiting anxiously for news. There was still no power in the town, and Vira sat in the dark, next to the fire, with her daughter Olena and grandson Danyl. They had filed a missing report with the local police, but Olena was full of worry that it might not have been registered properly, that there was something they hadn't done right to find her husband. She wanted to get to the town of Bucha, the centre of the region, to ask the police in person, but there were bullet holes in her car windshield.

Nervously Olena went around the house searching for recent photographs of Valeriy. She didn't know where the physical copies were. The house was dark and there were bullet holes in the walls and broken glass on the floors. A mortar shell had come through the roof and two others had detonated in the garden, spraying shrapnel through the house. All Olena could find was some passport pictures. She put them into a folder with Valeriy's passport and got a lift to Bucha.

At the police office, the missing reports were still coming in, at least 10 a day. Relatives of someone missing fill out a standard police crime report. Every night, the reports are driven by police to a town an hour south, and processed and uploaded into a database. The team there also collects photographs of the dead from the local morgues and posts them on a public channel on the messaging app Telegram, with a brief description of the body.

In Bucha, the police reassured Olena that the report from their counterparts in Makhariv was in the general system, and told her Valeriy was not on the list of the identified dead. But there were at least 200 unidentified bodies in Bucha, they said, and he could be among them. They also told her to look at the Telegram channel of the pictures from morgues, but it didn't prepare her for what she saw when she did.

Olena Kuksa holds passport photographs of her missing husband at the police station.

As the car made its way back to Makhariv, Olena sat quietly scrolling through the gruesome images. Then she began to cry. "My soul aches, not just for my husband, for all these people," she said. After a while, she tried not to look at the photographs and only scan the text for anything that could match Valeriy. Eventually she gave up. "That's as much as I can take for now," she said.

She looked out the window as the car approached her home. All along the road, storks stood in nests atop the telegraph poles - a sign in Ukrainian folklore that good families occupied the homes below. But the houses were pockmarked by bullet holes or completely destroyed by shells, and the families had been visited by terrible suffering and loss.

Olena had heard the stories about people taken to Belarus, to Russia; of civilians being returned in prisoner exchanges in the south of Ukraine. Everyone missing someone seemed to have heard these stories. She had wanted to travel to Kyiv to speak to the deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, whose office is handling the exchanges, but the police in Bucha told her not to. All the information about Valeriy was in the right place, they said, she just had to wait.

Then, three days later, on Thursday last week, Olena's phone rang, and the woman said she was calling from Iryna Vereshchuk's office. She asked if she was speaking to Valeriy Kuksa's wife, and Olena felt her heart stop in her chest. "Yes, you are," she said.

The woman told her Valeriy had been identified alive among the hostages in Russia. Where he was, or when Olena might see him again, the woman could not say. But he was alive. "It's OK," Olena said, through her tears. "He will come back to us. I can wait."

[DaffyVina]

8:58
Russia replenishing 'significant' losses of equipment - Ukraine armed forces

Russia has been taking measures to replenish "significant losses" of military equipment during its invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian armed forces has said in its latest operational update.

It said that according to available information, 17 tanks and 60 BMP-1 military vehicles were taken out of storage in Russia between 27 April and 2 May and were sent to the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russian troops.

The update also says that Russia has continued shelling the north-eastern city of Kharkiv and nearby settlements.

Ukraine's armed forces said they had repelled 12 Russian attacks in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, destroying six tanks, five artillery systems, 22 armoured combat vehicles and eight vehicles.

9:24
Pope says he has offered to meet Putin

Pope Francis says he has offered to travel to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the war in Ukraine, but hasn't yet heard back.

The Pope told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that he had sent a message to the Kremlin 20 days after the Russian invasion, via the Vatican's top diplomat.

It is the first time the pontiff has mentioned Russia or publicly named Putin since the beginning of the war in Ukraine more than two months ago.

The Pope also said he had recently had a 40-minute zoom call with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Kirill supports the war, and spent the first 20 minutes of the call reading out all the justifications for it, he told the paper.

The patriarch cannot transform himself into Putin's altar boy, the Pope said.

Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill hold a virtual meeting, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at the Vatican, March 16, 2022.
Copyright: Reuters

10:31
Mariupol evacuation buses make progress towards Zaporizhzhia
Laura Bicker
Reporting from Zaporizhzhia

The column of evacuees from besieged Mariupol is slowly making its way towards the evacuation centre here in Zaporizhzhia. The buses are travelling hundreds of miles through territory held by Moscow-backed separatists.

We are being given limited information about the convoy’s progress and it’s unclear if it is yet in Ukrainian-controlled territory. But we do expect the buses to arrive here in the next few hours.

Those on board include around 100 women and children who have spent more than 60 days in maze-like tunnels under the Azovstal steel plant. It was built to withstand a nuclear blast and when war broke out, many civilians used the vast underground chambers of the plant as a refuge. It is also being used by a group of Ukrainian fighters who are making a last stand at the site, even as the city around them fell after weeks of Russian bombardments.

The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross began an operation co-ordinated with Ukraine and Russia on 29 April to bring out women, children and the elderly from the steelworks. Negotiations are continuing to release a further 200 civilians still trapped there. Residents of Mariupol were also invited to join the convoy if they could make it to a meeting point.

There are thought to be around 100,000 civilians still living in the southern Ukrainian city, now occupied by Russian forces.

10:57
Macron and Putin to speak on the phone

The French president's office says Emmanuel Macron will speak to Vladimir Putin on the phone shortly - at around midday French time (11:00 BST).

The two leaders haven't spoken since 29 March, but up until that point had been in regular contact.

Macron has since secured re-election as French president for a second term.

His efforts to keep open communication with the Russian leader had led to criticism by some, both at home and abroad, including the Polish prime minister.

"It's my duty to speak with him, we need it. I won't stop doing it," he told a French newspaper in April.

11:19
Russia accuses Israeli minister of 'anti-historical statements' as war of words grows

Russia's foreign ministry has accused an Israeli minister of making "anti-historical statements" after he condemned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for claiming Hitler had been part Jewish.

Lavrov sparked a firestorm of criticism in Israel after he said Hitler "had Jewish blood" and that "the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews".

Israel's foreign minister Yair Lapid demand an apology, saying Lavrov had made "both an unforgivable and outrageous statement as well as a terrible historical error. Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust."

But on Tuesday, Russia's foreign ministry doubled down on Lavrov's comments, tweeting that Lapid had made "anti-historical statements... which largely explain why the current Israeli government supports the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv".
Russia has repeatedly made baseless claims that the Ukrainian government is run by neo-Nazis as a justification for its invasion.

The war of words between Israel and Russia risks becoming the most serious diplomatic crisis between the two countries in recent times.
Israel has friendly relations with both Ukraine and Russia and has led international mediation efforts to try to stop the war in Ukraine.

11:42
Putin signs decree on retaliatory sanctions

Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on "unfriendly actions of certain foreign states and international organisations", the Kremlin has said.

The decree means Russia will forbid the export of products and raw materials to sanctioned people and entities, Reuters reports.

It will also permit Russian entities to not fulfil their contractual obligations towards the people and companies hit by sanctions, the news agency adds.

12:32
Pope 'pessimistic' about war and prospects for peace
Pope Francis meets Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban during a private audience at the Vatican April 21, 2022.
Copyright: Reuters

More now from Pope Francis's interview with the Italian paper Corriere della Sera. He describes himself as "pessimistic" about the war in Ukraine, telling the paper there is not enough will for peace.

The Pope also says that when he met Viktor Orban the Hungarian prime minister told him the Russians "have a plan" and that it will "all be over" on 9 May.

This is Victory Day in Russia and an important date when the country marks the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two, typically with a large military parade.

However, Russia's foreign minister said at the weekend that its military would not "artificially adjust" its actions to any date, including Victory Day.